


All the Salt in the Sea

by elendri



Category: No. 6 - All Media Types
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-02
Updated: 2013-06-02
Packaged: 2017-12-13 17:19:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/826819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elendri/pseuds/elendri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe the dream is too big for them, but they’ll keep dreaming it anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All the Salt in the Sea

“Tell me about the world,” Shion whispers.

Nezumi runs a hand down his arm, kisses his forehead. “I don’t need to tell you,” he says. “I’m going to show you.”

Shion stretches slowly, inching a bit closer to Nezumi. He’s always like this; when the rain patters against the window or the bite of winter is in the air or they’re just too lazy to pull the covers up all the way, Shion edges in to steal Nezumi’s warmth.

(“I like it,” he’d say. “It feels like home. Maybe this time I can keep some of it.”

“What do you need to go filching mine for?” Nezumi would say. “You have your own.”

“It’s not like yours though,” Shion would say. “I like yours. I miss it when you’re gone.”)

“Nevertheless,” Shion says sleepily, “I want you to tell me about it.”

“Shall I fetch my books and maps?” Nezumi chuckles lightly. “No, I suppose there’s no point. You’ve looked them over more than I have. You know the world better than I do now, Shion.”

“I know nothing about it,” Shion stubbornly replies. “And I won’t know anything except what I’ll learn with you by my side.”

Nezumi smiles into Shion’s hair. Such a simple dream. Such an impossible dream. He’ll make it happen, somehow. “Want anything? I’m going to put the coffee on.”

“No,” Shion quietly moans, “don’t leave this bed.”

“Off, you leech,” Nezumi commands. Shion laughs and rolls away, taking the covers with him to burrow inside. With a pause to grab his pants, Nezumi slides off the bed and pads toward the kitchen. It takes a minute to figure out where Shion stashed the coffeepot this time—solving the mystery of their kitchen cabinets is a daily routine with Shion’s careless indifference to such mundane things as where to stack the dishes—and then he leans against the counter, munching on a biscuit while the water begins to boil.

Inside this cramped apartment, where it takes them eight steps from the bed to reach the front door and where Nezumi sometimes forgets and brushes his head against the sloping ceiling, the thought of traveling the world should sound ludicrous. It is, when Nezumi’s brutally honest with himself. He earns a pittance at the coffee shop down the street, and Shion is constantly finding employment that overworks and underpays for his credentials. Anyone who isn’t a fool would tell themselves that they’d be lucky to take a day trip to the seaside, and that would have to be world enough.

But when he’s curled up with Shion under the covers, looking at pictures of the shores of Belfast, the dizzying maze of Machu Picchu, Portugal’s vibrant colors, or the sunsets over Egyptian deserts; when he lies with his head on Shion’s lap as Shion reads to him of all the legendary landmarks there are to see; when they bring home dinner and absentmindedly comment that they can’t wait to eat real Indian curry or authentic fish and chips…

Fool he may be, but he doesn’t feel like one. Somehow, Nezumi will make the dream come true. And even if he can’t, he will never take the hope from Shion’s eyes.

Nezumi pours the coffee and ambles back to bed, holding out the Good Coffee Mug (so dubbed because it’s the only one they haven’t managed to drop and put a chip in yet) to Shion while he takes a careful sip from his own mug. “Did you know,” Nezumi says as he slides back onto the mattress, “that the Northern Lights can be seen in Iceland an average of 100 nights out of the year?”

Shion scoots in close to Nezumi, tangling their legs together as he curves himself to Nezumi’s side. “No,” Shion says with a smile. “Tell me more.”


End file.
